London (Part2)

I basically had no sleep since my arrival at London, or to be exact, since I boarded the flight to London. =.=" Whenever I'm sleep deprived, my usually small eyes will become even smaller (become just a small thin line only wtf!)

Anyway, even before I came to Europe I told the fiance that I must try every single macaroons that I saw, branded non-branded I did not plan to miss any single bit of it. So yea, sister brought me to Pierre Herme in London for take away macaroons before our lunch. We chose the pistachio, vanilla, chocolate, rose and matcha flavors. Among all, rose is my utmost favorite flavor followed by pistachio. Chocolate flavor macaroons were just being chocolaty, not up to my taste.

Pierre Herme, London

Pierre Herme offered a wide range of macaroons. You mentioned and they have it. But it was quite pricey too, at 2 pound per piece. Well, at least still cheaper than Laduree macaroons. 

Pierre Herme's Macaroons

Saw a lot of nice pastries and meringues selling at the stall next to Pierre Herme too. I'm a total loser when it comes to cakes and all sort of pastries. I almost bought all of them then luckily the boyf stopped me and dragged me away.

Don't they look super tempting?!?!?

Then sister suggested we went for Busaba Eathai for lunch as she was craving for thai food. We almost got lost there and because of the rains, I had to put my macaroons in the boyf backpack. So what happened? There were all smashed up, like ruined! T________T Still edible just that they did not look good anymore. 

london

Busaba Eathai was quite a famous thai restaurant in London as they have quite a number of branches. And it was packed most of the time. We waited for a shared seat for like 20 minutes. Had to sharing tables with 5 different group of people somemore. =.=" 

le sisters

boy's green curry

sister's pad thai

mine - tom yam mee hoon

For me, the portion was really small. I was not full at all after having that bowl of tom yam. Same goes to the boyf and sister. And it was not spicy enough. :| Or was it just my luck that day cause my sister said usually the food wasn't like this?

After lunch and some shopping, we walked to Buckingham Palace which was nearby. Well, it was a .. mehhh for me? I don't know what's so special with it. A palace, yea, as typical tourist we took a picture in front of it and that's all. Really thats all!! We cannot enter to visit or whatever. So, I don't really see the point actually.

Buckingham Palace

Ending my post here, will be back with london part3

London (Part1)

The fiance and I made a trip to London last year December. We actually burnt our Japan tickets (again!) just for this Europe trip. Why? Because my sister will be having her convocation somewhere this year July, and knowing that I would not have so much leaves as I will be working soon, I figure that it was really time to pay her a visit. As least have a look at her living environment and also to tour some part of Europe with her.

Our first stop was London, followed by Prague, Salzburg, Zurich, Interlaken, Rome, Florence, Milan, Paris then London again. Many people have been asking me for the itinerary, the do(s) and don't(s) and good food there. So i will just start with London first. Even for London I have to break it into different parts because I was there for quite long! 

So we took the midnight flight to London so that we will reach London early morning at London time. Pity boy cause he was working his ass off before boarding the flight, rushing home to bath, then we flew from Miri - KL then KL - London on the same day! 26 hours in total including transit time. Luckily we had access to premium lounge to bath and rest otherwise I couldn't imagine how stink we gonna be.

It was 530am London time by the time we reached. Sis actually woke up at 245am just to be in time to pick us up! So we took tube back to her place, settle down a bit, bathed, changed then went out for breakfast before making a move to the infamous borough market.

We had breakfast at starbucks which was nearby my sister place as it was raining outside. Bad luck for us! My sister said London's weather had never been that gloomy since she stayed there few years ago. :( Their bagels were really good though. And since christmas was around the corner, we had our starbucks christmas drinks!

We planned to go to The Big Ben and Tower bridge at the first place but decided to give it up to rain. So we changed to Borough market just to take a stroll instead. Borough market is an indoor market where the people sell wide range of dairy products and food. They all look so super fresh and the colors are so vibrant.

Colorful isn't it? I almost bought it but sister said I should try borough wine instead of this. Borough hot wine was only available during christmas season. It tasted well, I don't really like it but the fiance was ok with it. 

Then we took a one hour stroll around as I wanted to take some pictures also. 

sister :)

super fresh seafood!

Us. don't worry you can take picture anywhere you like here. They won't chase you away.

love this picture.

yup. so much brownies

My POI on borough market. It's a must visit if you happen to be in London. The market opens from Thurs to Saturday from 1000 to 1500 every week. It's easily accessible. Just take a underground train to Borough. :)

He proposed. And I said Yes, I do! :D

Hello readers! Yes, after months of idling I finally have the time to write a proper post. And this time with a super outdated topic which was yea, the proposal. :) I was being proposed on 27th December 2012, which was also our second anniversary that day at Fontana Di Trevi, Italy. I never thought that I would have an oversea proposal as, oh well,  my current fiance could easily rank the first in most unromantic boyfriend ever. But this time, he proved me wrong.

As we had been traveling around Europe since 13rd Dec, we arrived Rome, Italy right on 26th December morning, checked in to hotel, went to Vatican City then had a good night sleep. Greeted with a happy anniversary early in the morning with a warning that I should finish the blueberry yogurt as it was expring soon by the boyf.

We went to the ancient historical spot right after breakfast which was The Colosseum. Had a long 2 hour there walking visiting every single corner as the boyf was so mad fascinated by the Colosseum. While I could see my sister kept yawning there LOL. Colosseum was nice indeed.

Lunch was at a nice restaurant where they served really good seafood spaghetti (always my most preferred choice of spaghetti). My sister and I had the same food while the boyf had lasagna.

his

mine

On that day itself, whenever I started wandering around, I could see from far that my sister and boyf having some intense discussion then they parted every single time I walked near them. Well I should have sensed something wrong but I was thinking well maybe these two person were just bitching about me. LOL I had such bad thinking about them.

We then walked to Fontana Di Trevi which was only like a 15 minutes walk from the restaurant. I was shocked when we reached there. It was packed like sardine. Like mad packed! It was obvious people was trying to get to the front but no one was giving way. My God. We stood behind for like 15 minutes then decided to move in like super typical kiasu chinese. Finding and squeezing our way till the front and find the perfect spot for pictures. Then I asked for coins from the boyf cause I wanted to toss into the fountains like in the movie. :P He handed me several coins.

When I was about to toss it into the fountain. My sister stopped me. She said I was suppose to toss over my shoulder, so yea fine. Then I couldn't find the boyf for a picture of us tossing the coins into the fountain together. I gave up looking for him considering the crowds. So I flipped two coins into the fountain as it means I will come back to Rome again and I will fall in love here (kiasu ok. just tossed as many as I could).

Right after I tossed and sister snapped some picture, I turned around and saw my boyf one knee down with ringggggggggggg! A diamond ringggggggg :D And there he was asking me loudly "baobei, will you marry me?" I was so ecstatic, happy, touched and whatever it is I was so happy I said "yes.. yes yes yes I do".

He put on the ring for me and gave me a bear hug.

He had actually talked to my sister about the proposal and they planned it together. Aaaaww my sister. :)))) To celebrate our love, we went for fine dining  later that night.

27/12/2012. A really special and memorable day for us. :) My heart still skips a beat everytime I think of the proposal.

24th Birthday

Finally I have the mood to jot something down again. I have been staying home everyday after graduation and all I do is becoming a chauffeur, a cook, a babysitter and a baker. Okay I actually enjoy doing all these things and I do all of them voluntarily. :P I know, weirdo. 

So I celebrated my 24th birthday yesterday and earlier with parents on Friday. Last year I celebrated it in Singapore, you can read here. This year we had a really simple celebration because well i'm turning 24th (and old) and  I don't really have the urge to have any big or grand or whatever celebration you call it. 

Boyf picked me up at 7pm and we went to Best Western which was just right opposite my house haha. We could actually just walk there but I dislike sweating. I actually bought a dress to wear on that night but the bust size was too big for me. I can like put two more oranges into there so that it won't fall. Anyway, I'm selling that dress off as soon as my friend tries on it and if she can't fit in perfectly.

Okay so enough of my rubbish talk. Here's picture of us while waiting for our food. There's so much on the menu that we couldn't decide. So we agreed not to order the same thing that we savored before and to try something new. 

For starter we had cheese baked mussels which were really good. Kinda regretted we only went for 1/2 dozen instead of a dozen. 

I always loved cheese baked mussels but boyf just seemed to not liking the idea of having cheese on top of them haha but for this one, he had no say about it at all because it was really yummy.

As for starter, we had a bowl of oxtail soup each. Before it was served we were hoping that it won't be as tasteless as we had it at the same place here last night. And the cook did not disappoint us at all. Maybe because it was my birthday haha. 

As for my main course I went for "old man and the sea" with blue cheese which was a combination of king prawns, chicken, fish, and steak. I love it except the chicken because I'm not into chicken breast at all. In fact I hate it. Whenever I eat chicken I always go for drumstick/thighs/wings. No breast unless I'm left with no choice at all. So I finished everything except the chicken. 

As for the boyf, he opted for lamb rack since lamb was the only thing that was not only on my plate. His dish was way way nicer than mine. 

Then here come my birthday cake. I had coffee flavor mille crepe cake as my birthday cake this year. It was ordered online and finally a mille crepe cake after my malacca trip in August!!

And also I got my three champagne roses from the boyfriend too. Posing with it before entering the car i'm such a poser hahaha but who cares i'm so happy I have roses. 

Thanks for everything love. Appreciate it and I'm 24! :)

Hokkaido Cupcakes with whipped cream filling

I have always wanted to try baking this after seeing my friend posted a super beautiful picture of her hokkaido cake in facebook. She (Emm) is my cupcake guru, whatever she bakes is just super beautiful and delicious. My first trial on hokkaido cake, probably my last time baking it also. Why? cause it is not easy!!

Anyway, I adapt some recipe from the internet (forgotten the website) so i'm sharing the recipe here in case you wanna try baking it to kill some time:

Ingredients:

For the cake:

2 cups cake flour 

1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk 

1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use extra virgin olive oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 egg yolks

8 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

For the whipped cream filing:

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I add another 2 spoon of custard powder because I love custard

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175C. Make sure everything is at room temperature.

2. Sift cake flour together with baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl.

3. In a medium bowl, blend well milk, oil, vanilla extract and the 5 egg yolks.

4. Then Add the egg yolks mixture to the dry ingredients and beat it for about 2 minutes or less.

5. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar on high speed until foamy, then slowly add in the sugar and continue to beat until stiff peak form.

6. Fold in the meringue into the yolk mixture in 3 parts using a rubber spatula. Be sure to do it quick and light.

7. Then spoon the batter into cupcake cups evenly (2/3 of the cup). Most people use the square cupcake cups but I only have the round one) 

8. Be sure to give them a couple of big tap on the table to break the large air bubbles of the batter for finer texture of the cakes, then bake at 175C for 20-25 minutes or until cooked. (test with a skewer or toothpick). 

9. Let cool in the oven before removing or you can just cool on the racks. 

10. Mix the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and custard powder into the mixing bowl and beat on high speed until medium peak form. 

11. Fit the piping bag with narrow tip, and fill it with whipped cream. Pipe the cream into the center of the cupcakes after the cakes are completely cooled. Decorate the cupcakes by dusting it with powdered sugar.

And tadaaaa, 

This is the outcome of my cakes. Feel free to try the above recipe and see if we achieve the same results or otherwise. ;)

Tosokchun, Korea (for ginseng chicken)

I'm slowing picking back up the mood to blog due to my heavy workload and super tight traveling schedule. And of course I'm not done with Korea yet. I was suppose to be in Japan in May but due to boyf's tight working schedule, we had to burn our flight tickets. 

Speaking about the best ginseng chicken (sam gae tang) you can ever find in Seoul, one shall not miss Tosokchun's ginseng chicken! From in-sadong, I remember it was fairly easy to go there. Walk all straight heading to insadong's tourist information counter, turn left walk straight at the third junction turn left and tadaaa, there's Tosokchun.

It was so super packed with tourists that I suggest if you want to go, go before 12 or lunch time. The boyf and I reached there at 11am and we skipped the queuing part. :P How lucky. As usual the kimchi appetizer will just be there for you for free and tea will be served, free as well.

We did not order any other side dish like roasted chicken, pancake or whatsoever because this one portion of ginseng chicken is more than enough to make you full. Imagine eating one whole chicken, with rice and soup somemore. BLurppp. 

This is me and my super big portion of ginseng chicken. Forgot about the price because when we eat, we seldom look at the price.

And then inside the chicken is one whole big piece of ginseng which made the soup and rice so freaking delicious. Because the ginseng and rice is stuffed in the chicken and brought to boil, imagine how sweet the soup was. We ordered for extra ginseng (in liquid) also from the staffs and one of them gave us secretly for free because she said they are not suppose to give extra. 

And then look at the queue outside tosokchun. Picture was taken after our meal. How lucky we were! For more info on the price and how to go tosokchun, tell you trip advisor is the best site for planning trips. No joke.

Hong Kong 3.0: Best Roasted Goose and Pigeon

The thought of boyfriend going to bring me to HK for food and shopping again soon makes me get all excited and all of sudden, missing the gorgeous food over there. As many of you may know, despite the fear of weight-gain (and I gained already), I can never miss having nice food particularly when I'm traveling around.

Other than hawker food, we also hunt for those restaurants with different awards in the region because of the quality assurance. This time round hong kong food hunt, I would like to introduce a superb and award winning restaurant in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Sheung Wan has always been the high end area of hong kong and hence we had really high expectations towards the restaurant there - Yung Kee Restaurant 墉记。

In term of direction, I sucks in that. I do not exactly know how to study the map. And hence I misled the boyfriend for almost an hour WALKING! The fact was I missed reading the map by a station distance and hence so much of walking. 

But it was totally worth the walk. I was stumbled across the award this restaurant won at the entrance while waiting to be seated. It was a 3-storey 5 class restaurants and we were seated at the highest floor. And we were the only Asians in that freaking floor, surrounded by 100% caucasians or foreigners from other continents except Asia. Both of us were like o.0, wow?!

Flipping through the menu were different dishes with their own award-winning title throughout the years and recommendations from the chef. And if I was not mistaken, the owner of this restaurant started his career selling hawker food and became famous of his roasted pigeon/goose which he then made big earnings from his fame and opened this restaurant. Sound a bit ridiculous but seems to be true. 

Since there was the 2 of us only, we decided to go for 3 dishes - the roasted goose, roasted pigeon with its specialty sauce and beef brisket noodles. And thinking that we can still go for supper if it was not enough. But it turned out that the portion was HUGE which in the end we did not finish the beef brisket noodle. :S Feeling sorry to have it wasted.

The roasted pigeons

The roasted pigeon was the last to serve among these 3 dishes. It looks like roasted chicken to us anyway but no, it was pigeon. The texture of the meat was totally different from chickens. Not to say juicy but it was very tender and went perfect with the special sauce prepared by the chef himself. Due to the fact that roasted goose served before this, this dish seems to be overshadowed by roasted goose in terms of taste. 

The beef brisket noodle

Of which the boyfriend asked me why order this when we were in a restaurant. =___= Thinking back, I do not know as well. Maybe I just love beef as much as he loves pork. But ordering this was not a mistake anyway, it was super nice!! The waiter even cut the noodle for me seeing that it's quite difficult for us to split it into two bowls. 

roasted goose

This is our most favorite of all in hong kong! It was the best best best food so far I have tasted in hong kong. Totally worth the price! It's not too fat nor too lean, but just nice. The sauce was kind of sweet with a little bit of sourness in it. All in all, this dish was perfect. 

And our 3-dishes dining comes to a total of almost HKD500 including service tax and tidbits. What I must emphasize here is yung kee restaurant charges extraordinary high in service tax and the food are slightly pricey since it is an award winning restaurant. But like what I said, it was worth it.

Address: 香港岛中环威灵顿街32-40号镛记大厦(兰桂坊旁)   Tel:00852-25221624